This past week, two students, Mark Dourmashkin (3L) and Bart Lambergman (2L), from The Catholic University of Amercia Columbus School of Law (CUA Law), competed in New Orleans at the International Baseball Arbitration Competition, run by Tulane Law School, on behalf of the CUA Moot Court Association. The competition featured more than 40 law schools in a simulated salary arbitration competition modeled closely on the procedures used by Major League Baseball (MLB).

Dourmashkin and Lambergman prepared briefs, exhibits, and oral arguments while arguing three different salary arbitration cases on behalf of MLB Clubs and current players. The pair was critiqued by some of the top sports attorneys including the General Counsel for the Los Angeles Angels (LAA), and a leading attorney in MLB’s Labor Department in the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball.

For Dourmashkin and Lambergman, the road to New Orleans has been years in the making. During his time at Franklin and Marshall College, Dourmashkin worked in Minor League Baseball and served as the Sports Editor for the school newspaper. Recently, Dourmashkin published an article in the Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology (JLT) about the legalization of daily fantasy sports. Throughout law school, Dourmashkin has worked for the Circuit Court in Montgomery County and several law firms. Dourmashkin now works with a local sports agency in Bethesda, which represents several notable National Basketball Association (NBA) and International Basketball players.

Lambergman started his career in sports in high school by hosting a sports podcast where he recruited Washington, D.C., area athletes and media to call in as guests into his show. At the same time, Lambergman quickly rose from intern to Assistant General Manager at the Bethesda Big Train, a top summer collegiate baseball organization in the Cal Ripken Summer Collegiate Baseball League, located in Bethesda, Md. Lambergman used the connections he made from his podcast to develop relationships with Washington Redskins players and created a Celebrity Softball Classic for charity, his brainchild, which he led through his college years.

Lambergman made television and radio appearances on CSN Washington, 106.7 The Fan, Fox5, ESPN980, and ABC7. This led to positions leading the Inaugural Under Armour Ripken Futures Game aired on the CBS Sports Network, and a summer position at the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA). Lambergman now works for LEAD1 Association, which represents Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Division I Athletic Directors, researching and writing about the prevalent issues in intercollegiate athletics including group licensing and sports betting. Dourmashkin also assisted at LEAD1’s annual meeting held in Washington, D.C., for the first time in September 2017.

Dourmashkin (President) and Lambergman (Vice President) run CUA Law’s Sports Law Society (SLS), which hosts guest speakers and serves as a platform for current and future CUA Law students to learn about what it takes to get into the industry. According to Lambergman, “To land a position in the legal side of sports you need to be really creative and create your own brand.” The pair plans to host a sports law guest panel at the law school later in the spring focused on the intersection of sports and politics in Washington, D.C.